Relatives who followed Mosley’s phone and vehicle to a Smyrna apartment complex kept searching before an 18-year-old resident was arrested.

SMYRNA, Ga. — When Shanteria Mosley stopped responding to her family on Sept. 23, her relatives did not wait for the uncertainty to resolve itself. They followed the location of her cellphone, found the vehicle she had been using at a Smyrna apartment complex and began looking for her themselves. Within hours, that family search had become part of a homicide investigation that would lead to the arrest of 18-year-old Kingston Bradley.

Mosley, 25, was later identified by authorities after human remains were recovered at Park Valley Apartments and in a vehicle connected to the investigation. Bradley, who lived at the complex with his father, now faces charges of malice murder and concealing the death of another. At an Oct. 23 probable-cause hearing, a Cobb County judge denied him bond after a detective described evidence investigators say links Bradley to Mosley’s killing and efforts to conceal her death. Bradley has not been convicted, and some forensic testing remained unfinished at the time of that hearing.

The case began as a missing-person search. Mosley’s family said she had left home that Wednesday and later became unreachable. Early reports described her as a DoorDash driver who had gone out to work, but police later said information from DoorDash showed she was not logged into the delivery platform at the time investigators believe she was killed. Her relatives nevertheless knew something was wrong when they could no longer reach her. They traced her phone and found the car she had been using at the Park Valley complex, then knocked on doors and searched nearby areas while trying to determine where she had gone.

Smyrna police were called to the apartment complex shortly before 7 p.m., according to later police accounts and a report described in court testimony. An officer found the Honda Civic Mosley had been driving and tried to contact residents in apartments near the location where her phone was believed to be. Residents allowed brief checks of two apartments, but neither Mosley nor the phone was found. After about 30 minutes, the officer left and advised the family to make a missing-person report with Atlanta police because Atlanta was where Mosley had last been known to be before arriving in Smyrna. The family, however, continued searching at Park Valley.

That decision became pivotal. Around 8:15 p.m., a witness reported seeing Bradley carrying a large plastic container through an open area of the complex, according to an arrest warrant and subsequent court testimony. Authorities allege Bradley dropped the container and ran toward his apartment after realizing he had been seen. Investigators later said human remains were found inside. Mosley’s relatives had already been moving through the complex, talking with residents and looking for any sign that could explain why her phone and vehicle had ended up there. Police returned after the new report, shifting the case from a missing-person inquiry to a death investigation.

What investigators found afterward expanded the case. Police searching Bradley’s apartment reported areas of blood staining and the strong smell of bleach. Authorities recovered cleaning materials and saws, among other items that investigators considered potential evidence. Two days after the first remains were found, detectives executing a search warrant on a vehicle discovered garbage bags in the trunk containing additional human remains. Smyrna police then said they believed the victim was Mosley and announced that Bradley, who initially had been charged with concealing a death, would also face a malice-murder charge. The medical examiner later determined that Mosley had been shot in the head.

A month later, Detective Nathaniel Wachowiak gave the court a more detailed account of the state’s theory. He testified that investigators believe Mosley and Bradley first communicated on the morning of Sept. 23 after Bradley obtained her telephone number through an online escort advertisement. A camera system recorded the rented Honda Mosley was driving arriving at the apartment complex at about 9:45 a.m., according to the detective. Wachowiak also testified that a $120 Cash App transfer went from Mosley’s account to Bradley about 15 minutes later, although investigators believe Bradley made the transaction himself. Police have not publicly established a motive for the killing.

Investigators also constructed a timeline from electronic records and evidence collected at the apartment. Wachowiak testified that an order for trash bags and bleach was placed under Bradley’s name late that morning and delivered about an hour later. Police believe Mosley was already dead by then. Investigators later recovered an unloaded 9 mm handgun beneath a dresser in the apartment, the detective said. The weapon had been reported stolen in Atlanta. No shell casings were found inside the residence, and investigators had not completed all DNA, firearm, fingerprint and other laboratory testing when Wachowiak testified. The defense highlighted those unfinished results while questioning the detective.

The hearing also brought Mosley’s family into the courtroom in a different role from the one they had occupied on the night she disappeared. Her mother, Jessica McCrary, sat near prosecutors and told the judge about the loss of her daughter, who had a 4-year-old child. The family had already publicly pressed for answers in the days after the killing, including questions about what happened inside the apartment and why Mosley had been there. Their early search had placed them at the center of the discovery, but the later court process moved responsibility for proving what happened to prosecutors and investigators.

Bradley’s attorney, Paul Camarillo, sought bond and noted that his client had not previously been convicted of a violent felony. The defense also questioned aspects of the state’s investigation, including forensic work that was still pending and information that Mosley carried a firearm in her purse. Wachowiak acknowledged that some witnesses told police they had never seen Bradley with a gun or known him to be around firearms. Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy nevertheless denied bond after the nearly hourlong hearing, finding Bradley was not a candidate for release at that stage of the case.

The investigation has also produced statements that remain allegations rather than established findings. Wachowiak testified that Bradley’s father, Kenneth Bradley, told police he returned home around 6:45 p.m. on Sept. 23, saw his son and then left again. The detective said that during a later phone conversation, Kingston Bradley told his father that what happened was self-defense and referred to something beneath a dresser. Kenneth Bradley has not been charged in connection with Mosley’s death. The self-defense statement has not been adjudicated, and the full circumstances leading to Mosley’s fatal injury remain a matter for the criminal case.

The sequence leaves the family’s actions as one of the clearest threads through a case that still contains unanswered questions. Relatives noticed Mosley was missing, traced the location data available to them, found her vehicle and continued searching even after the first police visit ended without locating her. Their presence at the complex preceded the witness report that brought officers back and led investigators to evidence they say established a homicide. Later search warrants, an autopsy, electronic records and testimony added detail, but they did not change how the investigation began: with relatives trying to find a woman who had stopped answering them.

Bradley remains in the Cobb County jail without bond on charges of malice murder and concealing the death of another. The case remained active after the Oct. 23 hearing, and Atlanta News First reported that it was headed toward a jury trial. Prosecutors will have to prove the allegations against Bradley in court, while unresolved forensic testing and other disputed evidence may become part of the defense. No final determination of guilt has been made.

Author note: Last updated November 8, 2026.